20120302_oru_basketball_summit_league

ORU claims three top awards from Summit League

Oral Roberts' Dominique Morrison was selected as The Summit League Men's Basketball
Player of the Year in a vote of the league's 10 head coaches, sports information directors
and select media members as announced Thursday. His honor marked one of three individual
accolades for the regular season champion Golden Eagles.

ORU's Steven Roundtree earned the league's Sixth Man of the Year award and Scott Sutton
was named Coach of the Year while Western Illinois' Ceola Clark III collected the
Defensive Player of the Year honor and North Dakota State's Lawrence Alexander earned
Newcomer of the Year.

Morrison, ORU's first Player of the Year selection since 2006-07, ranked second in
the league in scoring with 22.2 points per league game. He also ranked second in minutes
played per game (36.9) and third in both free throw percentage (.867) and three-point
field goal percentage (.520). Morrison scored 20 or more points in 12 of 18 league
games, including a pair of 30-point outings. He ranks 14th nationally in scoring (20.3
ppg overall) and fourth among the NCAA's active career scoring leaders (2,034 career
points).

Roundtree, who earned the Newcomer of the Year award last season, ranked second in
The Summit League for field goal percentage (.632) and averaged 10.3 points and 4.8
rebounds per game while coming off the bench in 17-of-18 league contests.

Sutton collected his third Summit League Coach of the Year accolade after leading
the Golden Eagles to a 17-1 league record as outright regular season champions. His
squad tied the record for Summit League wins (17) and winning percentage (.944). ORU
also tied the school's highest Division I win total (26) under his guidance.

Clark became the first men's player in Summit League history to earn two Defensive
Player of the Year awards during a career, having also achieved the honor in 2009-10.
He lead the league with 38.1 minutes played per game and tied for third with 1.7 steals
per contest.

Alexander was The Summit League's highest scoring newcomer at 13.8 points per game
and ranked fourth overall with 4.6 assists per game.

Joining Morrison as first team All-Summit selections are four of the top five Summit
League scoring leaders in Oakland's Reggie Hamilton, the leader at 26.0 ppg, IPFW's
Frank Gaines, third at 21.6 ppg, IUPUI's Alex Young, fourth at 21.3 ppg, and South
Dakota State's Nate Wolters, fifth at 21.2 ppg. Hamilton (6.2) and Wolters (5.7) also
ranked 1-2 in the league in assists per game. North Dakota State's leading scorer
and rebounder, Taylor Braun (17.7 ppg and 6.5 rpg), also earned first team accolades.

The Summit League Tournament begins Saturday, March 3 at the Sioux Falls Arena in
Sioux Falls, S.D., and will be televised on Midco Sports Network and Fox College Sports.
Eight teams will vie for the NCAA automatic bid, which goes to the winner of the championship
game on Tuesday, March 6 on ESPN2 at 8 p.m. (CT).